My Guilty Pleasures: Coffee, yarn, ice cream and more yarn

The topic of day five’s blog writing challenge is My Guilty Pleasures. So, guilty pleasures… there are a few things that I sometimes use as a little pick me up during a long week. Coffee would have to be number one on the list. I drink a lot of coffee, but I don’t normally buy it out because a) it cost more and b) I’m always late to wherever I need to be.

Every once in a while, I’ll take the extra minute and treat myself to a cup while I’m still out. Sometime’s it’s a deliciously sweet caramel iced coffee. More often than not it’s just a regular coffee with cream. I’ll take an extra few minutes in the car to drink it slowly, in peace and quiet. And while coffee seems like a silly thing to consider a guilty pleasure, so much of my day is spent juggling the demands of three increasingly irrational children, cleaning, cooking, shopping, planning and so on that a moment of quiet and a cup of coffee that’s still hot (and hasn’t been microwaved six times in an attempt to drink it) is a rare moment that gives me some time to collect my thoughts and feel refreshed.

Guilty pleasure number two: Yarn. My knitting and crocheting friends will understand this struggle. I have so much yarn at home. Baskets, shelves, bags and rubbermaid totes full of it. I have yarn in all of my kids’ favorite colors (of course) and in a number of gorgeous colors that I just know will someday make a beautiful something or other that I will love forever. I even have fancy, super expensive yarn I got as a gift and just haven’t found a project worthy of using it for yet.

Of course none of this matters when I walk past Michaels on my way to the supermarket and see that Yarn Sale flyer in the window. It also doesn’t matter when I see a gorgeous shade of teal that is slightly darker than all the other teal yarn I have at home. I don’t normally shop for myself, ever. But there’s something about new yarn – the possibilities of future projects, imagining how lovely it would look as a scarf, hat or even new boot cuffs – it’s an easy way to turn even the worst week around. Who says money can’t but a bit of happiness?

I’m lucky to have a husband who not only turns a blind eye to my growing stash, but will also be a yarn binge accomplice if the need arises.

In my defense, I’ve already made five scarves with it!

Guilty Pleasure number 3: Ice cream. I honestly eat ice cream for lunch way more than I’d like to admit. Many a summer day I will pack the kids into the car and drive to our favorite Baskin Robbins for waffle cones piled high with our favorite flavors. It’s so far from the healthy, balanced lunch they would normally eat and we could totally eat lunch and go out for ice cream as a snack afterwards, but there’s something extra special about ditching the norm and giggling over scoops of rocky road and birthday cake ice cream. The guilty part is that I do it way more often than I might admit, sometimes even once a week over the summer, because it really is fun and I really do love ice cream!